A City of Widows: Pictures From Indias Town for Discarded Women When a womans husband dies in India, she can be subjected to stigma, loss of family and exile to a small city of 4,000 temples. By Allan MacDonellMarch 19, 2013 A Widows Fire A widow prepares food outside her room at the Meera Sahavagini ashram in the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan.

In some traditional beliefs, widows are blamed for the death of their husbands and are perceived as bad karma.

In Sati, a practice now banned in India, widows would offer themselves on a burning pyre to pay homage to their late husbands.

Child marriage is still practiced there in India - often a man of about 45-50 will marry someone younger than 16 and most marriages are arranged - and Dowry is still practiced there.

Many widows I know and served there were widows from a young age. They have lived in Hindu-imposed misery - to pay for their sin of not dying before their husband - if they ever want to be reincarnated into a higher caste.

In many ways, the Hindu Caste system as practiced in India is far worse than Islam is in some countries. People are enslaved to that system, mind, body and soul.

I have an acquaintance who is very familiar with Hindu culture and religion, and has spent all told several years in India. I have also seen many photos of widows in this town and apparently the author made sure to cherry pick only gloomy miserable looking photos.

I asked my acquaintance for more info. I consider this article to be very one sided.

9
posted on 06/24/2013 10:14:19 PM PDT
by little jeremiah
(Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)

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